Monday, November 16, 2009

War Is Goooood For Business! Discuss

OVER AT THE DUBAI AIR SHOW things were a bit on the "tepid" side for the poor manufacturers of civilian aircraft. They clearly hadn't gotten in on the real action: war. Regional tensions and the threat of war and internal strife kept sales of supersonic death machines rolling along at a brisk pace this year. That's good news for the economy. Not so good for the people who will go hungry because the money for food was spent buying the latest Eurofighter Typhoons and perhaps a batch of F-15s, just to spread the wealth around. According to Riad Kahwaji, chief executive of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis things could hardly be more frothy:

"With more threats and continued tensions, you will have continued demand for new systems and new capabilities, and that is why we have seen ongoing interest in upgrading and renewing fighter fleets.”

The Americans meanwhile, thrilled everyone with a 14 minute display of air prowess with their new F22 Raptor. But don't get your fingerprints on that jet, Sheikh, it's not for sale. The Americans were just giving it a display performance to remind you that, well, don't fuck around or they'll incinerate your ass. Well, more likely they'll incinerate your people's asses but that'll make you very, very unpopular at home. Hey, if that's what it takes to protect democracy...

"It is marketing for U.S. equipment, maybe reminding the UAE that there are alternatives to Rafale, but they are also flexing their muscles near Iran."

Which only goes to show you - even death and destruction need a good marketing team to go over well. And it looks like business is booming so if you've just gotten your layoff notice, go into heavy weaponry. It's a definite growth industry!